Malawi has officially kicked off nationwide capacity-building trainings under the Youth Innovation Fund (YIF), a flagship program targeting youth-led startups.
Workshops began this week in Blantyre, Mponela and Mzuzu, marking a major step in rolling out YIF support for Tier 2 and Tier 3 grantees. The initiative follows the fund’s official launch by President Dr. Lazarus McCarthy Chakwera during the 2025 National Youth Summit.
Positioned under the ATM+M strategy and Malawi 2063 Vision, the fund seeks to turn bold ideas into viable enterprises, creating jobs and boosting the national economy.
“No Connections Just Ideas”
In Blantyre, NYCOM Executive Director Rex Chapota opened the training with a clear message: funding will go to innovation, not influence.
“The only ticket to getting this grant is your idea not who you know,” Chapota said.
He urged grantees to be accountable and ambitious.
“This is not money to chew. We must be good stewards of the resources entrusted to us.”
Training to Scale, Not Just Start
In Mponela, NYCOM Director of Finance and Administration Ernest Victor Mangani called on participants to focus on business outcomes job creation, financial discipline and market readiness.
Mangani reiterated the president’s vision of YIF as a core tool for youth economic empowerment, especially in a country where unemployment and informality remain persistent hurdles.
Ideas Must Meet Impact
At the Mzuzu session, NYCOM Director of Programmes Williot Joaquim Lumbe challenged young innovators to move beyond concepts.
“Strong ideas mean little without real-world execution,” Lumbe said.
Program coordinators Kelvin Nkuwatha and Felix Chiyenda offered an overview of the fund’s structure and noted the rigorous shortlisting that preceded the grants.
Long-Term Vision, Local Ownership
The YIF aims to build a generation of entrepreneurs aligned with the Malawi 2063 agenda a vision for an inclusively wealthy, self-reliant nation. By offering not just capital, but training and technical support, the fund is positioning youth as drivers of economic transformation.
The current training phase is expected to produce a new cohort of youth-owned businesses capable of scaling and attracting further investment.
Malawi’s future will not be imported, it will be built startup by startup.
